Tuesday, March 03, 2015, 4:46 p.m.

Tracie Dungan

Stories by Tracie

The University of Arkansas at Fayetteville’s latest six year graduation rate is 60.1 percent, slightly down from last fall’s record 60.4 percent rate but still tracking favorably with universities nationally, according to a new report.

FORT SMITH — The new mission for the Arkansas Air National Guard’s 188th Fighter Wing will position it for a role in the U.S. military’s post-Middle East-era planning, while drawing higher-paying jobs and higher levels of security clearance to the base, said its commander, Col. Mark William Anderson, to a crowd of about 1,000 Saturday afternoon.

As a registered nurse who works 12-hour shifts for three straight days, Ashley Creek didn’t always feel like hitting the books to earn a bachelor’s degree in nursing — even though “hitting the books” actually involved powering up her laptop.

The closed case file of billionaire Wal-Mart heiress Alice Walton’s DWI arrest two years ago in her home state of Texas includes letters from two doctors contending that illness and old car-accident injuries prevented her from passing the walking portion of her sobriety test.

Fall enrollment at the University of Arkansas includes a smaller freshman class than last fall and fewer Arkansans overall, but the Fayetteville campus made gains in other areas it tracks, such as international students, Hispanics and the total number of minority-group students, according to a preliminary tally of its 11th-day head count.

The University of Arkansas System is changing the health plan it offers its retired, Medicare-eligible faculty and staff Jan. 1, saying it is trying to avert what would have been a 26 percent premium increase for the current plan.

The University of Arkansas at Fayetteville will get $1.4 million from the federal government to establish a research center focused on improving river transportation, Arkansas’ U.S. Sens. Mark Pryor and John Boozman and U.S. Rep. Steve Womack said in a joint announcement Tuesday.

SPRINGDALE — Titia Grimsley was among the daughters and granddaughters who honored the memory of Jerry Stark during Saturday’s Walk to End Alzheimer’s at Arvest Ballpark, a fundraising event that drew an estimated 1,100 people.

The duties of the new in-house financial planner hired at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville will go hand in hand with what the campus plans to do in response to a legislative audit of its deficit-troubled fundraising arm, according to campus officials. Plans include having units across campus submit monthly, in depth financial reports by December.

The chief auditor for the University of Arkansas System asked the system’s trustees Thursday to consider temporarily suspending the system’s 24-hour Fraud Hotline because of his concern public release of its tips could endanger privacy of whistle-blowers and those falsely accused.